A country gentleman and hobby bureaucrat ponders a world moving faster than he is entirely comfortable with...

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Which part of "resignation" is so hard to get?

I'm a mite puzzled (and yes, I know, there are those of you out there who are convinced that this is my semi-permanent state). I tendered my resignation as Regional Secretary on Thursday. Today I get an e-mail regarding a future meeting and a request to gather certain information from the very person I tendered my resignation to. Hang on a moment, I think, haven't I resigned? Doesn't that mean that I'm not Regional Secretary? Or am I in some sort of weird parallel universe where the word resignation means "a courteous way of saying that everything is fine"?

On the plus side, talking to a couple of more sensible colleagues, I finally found someone who understands the concept of resignation as a point of honour. Stand up Maureen de Beer, former Chair of London Region. Has our politics decayed to the point where a long memory is required to countenance the idea that someone might resign because it is the morally right thing to do? Does this explain the disenchantment of the public with politics?

This does leave me with the question of my future role on the Regional Executive. Clearly, a firm grip of corporate governance issues might be helpful, and I need to spend more time on candidate issues, so that seems like the obvious route to go down. It might even be fun to do without a little thankless responsibility from time to time...

1 comment:

Cleary by resigning you showed your fitness for office, an act that automatically unresigned you. You will recall, of course, that 'resigning' is no longer a voluntary process - David Blunkett 'was resigned' from the Government you will recall. As you haven't 'been resigned', and merely 'resigned', it barely counts, especially since from your account you have not been hounded from office, a necessary condition nowadays for the resignation process. I hope this clarifies matters for you.

About Me

Fiscal conservative and perpetually surprised country dweller, I learn something every day about life in a small country village.
When I'm not at work, I slip seamlessly into my second role as husband of, and consort to, my wife, Ros.

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